Protect Women’s Health, not Planned Parenthood

• Recent videos imply that Planned Parenthood engages in an illegal practice of harvesting and selling organs of aborted fetuses.

• Senate Republicans have introduced legislation that will protect the current level of funding for women’s health – redirecting federal funds received by Planned Parenthood to other health care organizations.

In recent weeks, several videos have emerged that paint a troubling picture of the operations at Planned Parenthood. The videos, which even Hillary Clinton has called “disturbing,” raise serious questions about whether Planned Parenthood is violating laws intended to protect the health of women and unborn children.

“As a mother and grandmother, I find this footage of Planned Parenthood’s role in the harvesting of the organs of unborn babies morally reprehensible and vile. The American people are horrified by these videos as well. Simply put, this legislation ensures that funding for women’s health is protected and that taxpayer dollars will not go to Planned Parenthood.”      – Senator Joni Ernst, 7/28/2015

The videos suggest that Planned Parenthood is profiting, possibly illegally, from selling parts of aborted fetuses.

• The first video shows Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services talking about altering abortion procedures to obtain fetal tissue.
• The second video shows a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing prices with people posing as potential buyers of intact fetus parts, discussing at one point a “a less crunchy technique for more whole specimens.”
• The third video shows another Planned Parenthood medical director working over a dish of fetal parts and discussing their viability with a person posing as a buyer.
• A fourth video, released last Friday, shows that same Planned Parenthood medical director saying it is better to frame these transactions as research rather than business, in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Republicans Will Protect Women’s Health Funding

According to a March 20, 2015, Government Accountability Office report, Planned Parenthood received $344.5 million from federal agencies and nearly $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2012. Senator Ernst – along with 44 co-sponsors – has introduced legislation that protects federal funding for women’s health while addressing the serious problems at Planned Parenthood.

The bill would keep the existing level of funding for women’s health. It would distribute the funds to other eligible organizations – including community health centers – that provide women’s health services. Since there are more than 13 federally qualified health centers for each Planned Parenthood clinic, women will have many options to receive these important services. According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, federally qualified health centers operate “service sites in both rural and urban locations, offer low-income populations health services similar to those provided by Planned Parenthood, but do not perform abortions.”